Senators grilled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday over her management of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and how the agency — which President Donald Trump has sought to dismantle — is responding to a series of devastating storms across the southern United States. 

During a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked Noem what she would do about pending federal disaster declaration requests for the state of Missouri — which has been wracked by a series of deadly tornadoes — that have not been approved by the president. Mississippi, which is still recovering from extreme weather events in March, is also waiting for approval on months-old disaster relief declarations. 

“The state has pending three requests for major disaster declarations from earlier storms we’ve lost over a dozen people. Well, actually, if you count the folks we lost just on Friday, we’ve lost almost 20 people now in major storms just in the last two months in Missouri,” Hawley said. 

“Will you commit to helping, for those three major disaster declaration requests that are pending, will you expedite those, Secretary Noem, and get those in front of the president, get those approved?” Hawley asked. “We are desperate for the assistance in Missouri.” 

Noem replied that she would make sure the applications were put before Trump as soon as possible, and agreed to expedite individual assistance for qualified Missourians impacted by the recent storms. 

A prominent Republican lawmaker like Hawley begging a Republican administration to approve emergency aid for a Republican state is a sign of how badly federal agencies responsible for the welfare of vulnerable populations have eroded under Trump. 

The plea came a day after St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer told MSNBC that “FEMA has not been on the ground” and that the city does not “have confirmed assistance from FEMA at this point.”

“What we need right now is federal assistance. This is where FEMA and the federal government has got to come in and help communities. Our city cannot shoulder this alone. The state of Missouri cannot shoulder this alone,” Spencer said. “We need partners at the national level, at the federal level, to step up and help — and this is not just true for St. Louis. Cities across the nation, when they are experiencing disasters such as this, this is what the federal government is for.”

Last month, Arkansas’ Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders — who previously served as Trump’s press secretary — issued a letter to the president pleading with him to reconsider FEMA’s denial of an emergency disaster declaration request as the state recovered from a series of tornadoes in March. In her letter, Sanders wrote that “without the support of a Major Disaster Declaration, Arkansas will face significant challenges in assuming full responsibility and achieving an effective recovery from this event,” and that “supplemental Federal assistance is crucial” to recovery efforts. 

The declaration was finally issued on May 13, almost exactly two months after the storms hit the state, and a month after Huckabee wrote to the president.

Meanwhile, Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear appeared on CNN to discuss the tornadoes that killed 19 people in the state over the last week. “I’m very concerned about cuts to FEMA or to the National Weather Service,” Beshear said. “But I want to be clear that the actual response on the ground by the Trump administration and Secretary Noem has been good. The way FEMA has treated people has been good. The president has approved each of our applications,” he added. 

The disparity in response levels speaks to the scattershot, disorganized manner with which the Trump administration has handled disaster responses. 

In the months since Trump assumed office, FEMA has been hit with sweeping staffing and management cuts in accordance with Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives. In March, Noem announced that she would move to “eliminate” the agency altogether and transfer disaster management responsibilities to individual states. FEMA’s interim head Cameron Hamilton was removed from his post earlier this month after testifying before Congress that he felt the agency’s demise would be detrimental to public welfare. His replacement, former Marine Corps Officer David Richardson, sent a dire warning to staff: “Don’t get in my way […] because I will run right over you. I will achieve the president’s intent.” 

During Tuesday’s Senate hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) grilled Noem on the Trump administration’s plans to gut FEMA, and how it would affect their ability to respond to disasters. 

“You are losing a fifth of the workforce at FEMA. What’s your plan to replace them?” Blumenthal asked. “How are you going to meet the needs of our constituents?”

Noem dodged the question, talking over Blumenthal’s attempts to redirect her and claiming that it was actually the Biden administration’s fault that the agency was bloated and ineffective. 

But as much as Trump’s Cabinet would like to place the failings of the administration at the feet of his predecessor, the states currently attempting to manage deadly disasters aren’t running to Joe Biden for assistance — they’re begging the current occupant of the White House.